Amherst resident David Poritz among 32 students nationwide to earn Rhodes scholarships

View full sizeDavid Poritz, 23, of Amherst, has been named a Rhodes Scholar.

AMHERST – David S. Poritz has spent much of his life crusading for the rights of Latin Americans. This week, that work helped him become one of 32 students nationwide to win a coveted Rhodes Scholarship.

The award provides Poritz, 23, with an all-expense-paid education at Oxford University in England starting next October. He plans to spend one year earning a Masters degree in global governance and diplomacy.

A senior at Brown University, he majors in anthropology and Latin American and Caribbean studies. A graduate of Amherst Regional High School, Poritz is also a scholar with the Henry David Thoreau and Harry S. Truman Scholarship foundations.

British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes created the Rhodes Scholarships through his will in 1902. They are among the most prestigious academic honors in the world. Past recipients include former U.S. President Bill Clinton, La. Gov. Bobby Jindal, a long list of congressmen, Supreme Court justices, Nobel Prize winners and other luminaries.

Winning the scholarship is “a very humbling experience,” said Poritz. “It’s a really exciting opportunity. It’s a big honor.”

The Rhodes Trust said 830 applicants endorsed by 299 colleges and universities vied for the awards.

Poritz started and operates two organizations: a non-profit aimed at helping impoverished people in Ecuador and a limited liability company encouraging responsible oil and gas extraction.

In 2009, Poritz took a leave of absence from Brown to establish Gaia Certification, Ltd., which developed a voluntary certification system, much like a credit rating, for oil and gas extraction sites. Under the standard, companies can receive financial benefits for eco-friendly and socially responsible practices. It is now called Equitable Origin.

View full sizeProvided by David Poritz2012 Rhodes Scholar David Poritz, 23, of Amherst, on an oil rig in the Ecuadorian Amazon during an onsite visit on behalf of Equitable Origin, a limited liability company he founded in 2009 that certifies oil and gas extraction sites for environmental and social responsibility.

“There’s a major paradigm shift happening in the world,” said Poritz, the President and Chief Executive Officer. “It’s no longer acceptable ... for a company to just go into a region and extract a resource.”

“For the first time, we can legitimately verify social and environmental responsibility,” he said.

The company is also creating a marketplace that allows customers to buy products from certified sources.

When Poritz leaves for Oxford, he will stay involved in this work, but will delegate day-to-day operations to other people, he said.

At 15, he helped a local attorney compile evidence in a class action lawsuit against oil giant Chevron (then called Texaco) for allegedly leaving behind a major eco-crisis after drilling in Ecuador.

The company was ordered to pay an estimated $18.2 billion in damages this year, which it has called “illegitimate and unenforceable (and) contrary to the legitimate scientific evidence.” An appeal is underway.

Also at 15, Poritz started Esperanza International, Inc., in his Rolling Ridge Road home, which sends shoes, educational materials and medical supplies to impoverished areas of Ecuador.

In 2008, the group joined a collaborative effort to amend the Ecuadorian constitution to include legal protection for nature. The country’s people approved language granting “natural communities and ecosystems ... the unalienable right to exist, flourish and evolve.”

Poritz was honored with a Prudential Spirit of Community Award in 2007. In recognition, Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., entered his congratulations into the congressional record.